In The News: College of Sciences
Two UNLV scientists working on NASA's new mission to Mars survived the "seven minutes of terror" Thursday as they watched the dangerous but perfect landing of the Perseverance rover on the red planet.
Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, released the following statement applauding news that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) a grant totaling $2,000,000 to support research and development in nuclear science, engineering, and security.
UNLV is one of 11 universities that will receive a federal grant totaling $25 million to support research and development in nuclear science, engineering and security.
If all goes right, Thursday the Perseverance Rover will be safely on Martian ground, where it can begin searching for signs of ancient life, and collecting and storing rock and soil samples.
Originally from Valais, the Swiss Arya Udry is associate professor in planetology and martian geology at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. At 33, she is one of the researchers who will work alongside NASA on the Perseverance rover , which is due to land on the Red Planet this Thursday, February 18 at 9:55 p.m. Swiss time. This enthusiast explains to Heidi.news the hopes that the mission represents for her scientific field, Martian geology. To find in video (above), and in long version in the text below.
NASA’s rover Perseverance on Thursday neared its encounter with Mars, hewing to a trajectory that will plunge it into the atmosphere of the Red Planet to begin a sequence of maneuvers designed to avoid surface hazards and deposit the rover inside a crater that may hold remnants of ancient life. NASA anticipates the spacecraft will enter the atmosphere about 3:48 p.m. and deploy a parachute four minutes later. Touchdown is expected about 3:55 p.m.
Rough terrain will require spacecraft to use autonomous navigation system to avoid hazards
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) announced a $25 million grant to a University of California, Berkeley-led consortium of 11 universities for research and development (R&D) in nuclear science, engineering, and security. This long-term investment will support the consortium at $5 million per year for five years. The grant, awarded for the third time to a Berkeley-led consortium, followed the announcement of a funding opportunity issued in April 2020.
Las Vegas has its share of celebrities, including one who works at the UNLV Physics Department.
Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday toured a University of Nevada, Las Vegas lab researching technology that could allow for the transmission of electricity over long distances, something the Democratic governor said could potentially grow Nevada’s energy industry.